Will fifth generation Mazda MX-5 Miata go 0-60 in 4.9 seconds?
In this month’s Automobile Magazine (September 2015 page 81) there is a very interesting chart. The chart shows the first, second, third, and new fourth generation Mazda Miata’s 0-60 mph times. Looking at the numbers it is not hard to understand how the Miata got its hard-to-shed reputation for being a “slow” car. The first generation Mazda, a 1993, is listed as having a 0-60 mph time of just under nine seconds (8.9). The next generation ran to sixty in just under eight seconds (7.9). The outgoing third-generation the magazine tested had a 0-60 mph time of 6.6 seconds. Not bad at all. Automobile did not instrument test their new 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata test car, but estimates a 0-60 mph time of just 5.8 seconds. That jives with Car and Driver’s instrument test that pegged the car at 5.9 seconds to sixty.
As we explained in detail in our recent story, the new fourth generation car is no longer slow by any modern definition. There are no new convertible cars in the U.S. market its price that can beat the Miata. In fact, there are very few sports coupes its price in any shape or form that can beat it in any race.
What the Automobile chart shows is that each generation of Miata steps down by about a second in the 0-60 mph run. From the high eights to the high sevens, to the high sixes, to the high fives. Following that trend to a future fifth generation Mazda Miata, we would expect to see a 4.9-second zero to sixty car. About as fast at the V8-powered Lexus RC F sports coupe is now.
Main story image courtesy of Paul Strauss.